So, apparently the high-speed trains run slower when there’s snow (makes sense, but it does break my heart to have to pay high-speed fares and then have the train go extra slowly). Took me 8 hours to come back from Mulheim in Germany, where the latest VD workshop was being held. OK, part of the journey is nonsensical, since I have to take a first train to go south from Mulheim into Switzerland, and another north from Switzerland back to France (and then a further train from Strasbourg to Paris). And part of it was the delayed train on the last segment of the journey. But still–got plenty of time to write 🙂
Apart from that, I had a great weekend in Villa Diodati, away from Internet and the phone network. Wrote a ton, critted awesome stories, and ate extra good food as usual (full report forthcoming, but I need to grab some pictures first).

Novel wordcount: +6000 words, and an odd Aztec ritual.
Movie count: watched last episode of Sherlock, The Great Game. Much better than episode 2. And Moriarty was awesome.
Misc: copies of Galaxies arrived, with the French translation of “Butterfly, Falling at Dawn”. Definitely odd to see myself translated in print, but kind of cool too.
Misc 2: apparently, the internet says I should expect a really negative review of SoU sometime soon, aka the kind that has claws and uses them freely. It will be… interesting (the wise thing, knowing myself, is also probably to ignore it until after I’ve finished book 3. I’m not sure I can count on myself to be that wise, but I’ll try).

On a happier note…

My friends’ Bday gifts to me: season 1 of The Big Bang Theory, season 1 of Torchwood, and mangas.

*happy geek*

Not a model of speed, really (work plus writing leave me with little spare time). At least I’ve finally managed to learn the basics for the family unit (which also double as pronouns for most of them, so pretty useful). Of course, it only occurred to me after I finished that I probably wasn’t going to need the ones for the paternal side of the family (unless I was referring to them in a conversation with a Vietnamese)…

The book I’m using is good for getting some of the basics right (in addition to the semi-weekly pronunciation/vocabulary lessons taught by Mom/Grandmother), but I have to be careful with the pronunciation, which is the “standardised” one (read “mostly Northern”, as opposed to my Southern maternal family). Their use of pronouns is also problematic: they overuse the first person tôi (which draws a little too much attention to itself), and of course they fail to take into account the fact that the learner of the language could be Vietnamese or related to Vietnamese, which means they cheerfully skip the modes of address specific to relatives–which I’m likely to need, and fast, as the whole maternal family now knows what I’m up to.
That’s what I can spot; it leaves me a little worried about the stuff I can’t spot…

I was also reading a book on the history of Vietnam, which I thought was going to give me a more formal idea of the subject, but I stopped when I got to the part which described the fall of Saigon as a moment of rejoicing for the whole country. Er, no? I very much doubt all the inhabitants of Saigon were very happy to be “freed” from “the tyranny of a Western-controlled government”… [1]

[1]I’ll freely admit I’m not very objective either about the time period, but then again it’s not exactly easy, considering my family history.[2]
[2] And I’ll stop there, because this is getting a little too close to heart and too personal to be unpacked on a blog.

My husband is possibly the only one who can go on holiday to Malta and bring back a ginormous oil painting with a dragon on it.
Current mood: amused

How is it Friday already?
Oh, well. At least the honeymoon is just over the plateau… (and remember you can win Aztec swag by guessing my destination–you have until tomorrow midnight GMT to enter). I now know where I’m going, and where we’re going to be staying, and let’s just say it’s going to be bloody amazing.

Currently fighting with %%% scripts that won’t cooperate, but that’s just life.

Slowly waking up after a much-needed 12-hour night. Got tea and pain au chocolat, with which you can never go wrong.

Today, we’re going shopping for new casserole and pans (not exactly fascinating, but much-needed since our old ones have basically worn through).

Cooking experiments: demonstrated how to cook semi-polished rice (the package was French and suggested some horrendous things should be done to the rice; I made up an alternate method). Next up, brown rice!

(courtesy of a friend. Click for larger versions. Official pictures might be a little longer in coming)

Exit of the church, with our guard of honour

Close-up on BF and me with our respective parents by our sides

And on the beach, ‘cos it’s a holiday…

And this is where we went for our pre-honeymoon. Three days of relaxing bliss. Real honeymoon in October, destination unknown. Well, to me. I sure hope the H knows 🙂 .

Many many thanks to everyone who came to be with us on this special day; and to those who sent their encouragements and good wishes!

Er…
So this is possibly quite silly, but the H and I need someone who can read Chinese. See, we bought ourselves a nice rice cooker from the local Chinatown. What we hadn’t planned for was that although it came with an English instruction manual, it doesn’t provide an explanation of the different settings in a language either of us speaks. There’s a row of white Chinese characters around the central LCD screen (which is meant to be the cooking modes), and a further set of five settings on the LCD screen itself (which is meant to be the rice type, if we read the instruction manual correctly). I have no idea if they’re traditional or simplified Chinese.

Pictures below after the cut. If anyone can provide us with translations, we’d be pretty grateful (it would avoid our messing up dinner by confusing congee, steam-cooking and standard rice cooking…)

EDIT: we’re pretty reasonably sure the white characters are the following (or some variant): regular, quick, small amount, cake, steam, soup, congee, casserole. We just don’t know which ones correspond to which…
Continue reading →

The weather is, er, quantum. Very nice one day out of two, hellish the other one (as in, bucketloads of water). Currently we’re at the watery stage. Which, if everything continues in the proper quantum way, promises semi-decent sunny weather on Saturday. Not guaranteed, of course…
I’m at the stage of wishing all of this was over, too…

So…

From now until Sept. 5th, I will be mostly off the grid. I might be checking emails sporadically; but this isn’t guaranteed. I might be posting if I get a free minute; but again, not guaranteed. (exceptionally, there won’t an SFnovelists post forthcoming on August 28th, due to major time crunches. Next post due in September).

Also, any good wishes for stellar weather on the 28th in the region of Brittany are much appreciated.

There will be pics when I come back.